Pants guard



New 11, 1958 w. F. TUFTS 2,359,903

PANTS GUARD Original Filed June 24, 1950 v 1 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR IVY/Mam F Tu/fs ATTORNEY Nov. 11, 1958 w. F. TVUFTS a 0 PANTS GUARD I Ofi'ginal Filed June 24, 1950 2 e t 2 IN VENTOR ATTORNEY 2,859,903 PANTS GUARD William F. Tufts, AtlantafGaa-assignorto L. M. Leathers Sons, Athens, Ga.

Original application June 24, 1950, Serial No. 170,115, now Patent No. 2,739,745, dated 'March 27, 1956. Divided and this application Junet23, 1955,,Serial No. 517,445

This invention relates to coat hangers and has an object to provide an improved trouser guard therefor. In this connection there are several secondary but important objectives which will be emphasized in the progress of this description. This application is a division of my co-pending application Serial No. 170,115,

filed June 24, 1950, now Patent No. 2,739,745, issued March 27, 1956.

Preparatory to a detailed description general reference will first be made to the various figures representing the features of the invention.

Figure 1 shows a wire coat hanger equipped with the improved trouser guard of this invention.

Figure 2 shows only the guard which is inverted so as to display the main feature of the invention.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view showing the function of the details of Figure 2.

Figure 4 shows a variation of the details of Figure 3.

Figure 5 shows the function of the details of Figure 4.

Figures 6 and 7 show separate variations of the details shown above.

Figures 8 and 9 show additional variations of the invention as shown in Figure 1.

Figures 10 and 11 show still another variation of the invention of Figure 1. v

Figure 12 shows a guard equipped with an additional form of this invention.

Figure 13 is a sectional view 1919 of Figure 12.

Figure 14 is a partially expanded perspective view showing a plurality of trouser guards in nested relationship.

Figure 15 is an end view of the nested trouser guards illustrated in Figure 14.

Referring now to each figure separately a detailed description of the basic and various features of the invention will be made. a

The garment hanger of Figure l is equipped with the trouser guard 2 of Figure 2. This guard, made from a strip of thin sheet meterial, is formed so as to overhang the horizontal bar of the hanger and thus protect the garment from the imprint of the wire. A paper shield of this type has been in use in the trade for many years and is generally accepted. The method by which such a shield is secured on the hanger is by provision at its end of slots or slitted portions Which'engage the wire as shown at 3 in Figures 3 and 8. Such securing means is not completely effective however, and it is this ineffectiveness that this invention aims at correcting.

In Figure 2 the portions 4 of the inside of the guard ends are pre-coated in manufacture with a pressuresensitive adhesive such as rubber latex. When installed on the wire hanger these ends when pressed together will adhere to each other by action of the adhesive as shown in Figures 1 and 3.

The fragmentary views of Figures 4 and 5 show a variation of the principle described for the preceding 2,859,903 Patented; 'Nova l l 1958 "ice.

.afig-ures. "In this --.case theextension 5 of thelend folds v:one half of the end fis cut away, thefend- 6 folding'around and adhering to thesleg :of therg'uard.

In-Eigure 7 iswshownia clipamember 8, ma'defofimetal -o'r some suitable material, '-wliichis fastenedain'zmanufacture to the .5 guard,; :so that when'ei'nsta'lledi. on:: th mang r it -may be abenteup to clip theutwoaleg'si ofv-the .ieguard ttogether. ThisGstructure mayatbe locate'dz atiany desiredv position :alongth'engliard': legs or *atnitsvends- -for -fastening the two: legs ':together.

:Eigures: 8 and 9.: 'showastill fur-thena-variationsi ofm th'e invention. In Figure 8 the adhesive has been applied midway of the guards length to the under side of the legs. When thus installed on the hanger, pressure at this mid point will lock the two legs together. Also, as shown in Figure 9, the legs may be adhered together along the entire length of the guard as at 11.

Figures 10 and 11 show an additional variation of the invention embodying a further improvement. It is easily seen from consideration of Figures 1 thru 9 that the width requirement of the strip from which the guard of this invention is made is greatly reduced by the employment of the locking principle.- If the guard were not so locked in place on the hanger, the width of the strip at the ends would have to be suificient to provide adequate strength at 12 and 13, of Figure 8, to insure that the paper would not break down at these points and result in the guard falling from the hanger under the weight of the garment. However, by employing the locking principle, as described above, the width of the guard can be reduced to a minimum which in some cases would be one half that of the present standard guard. Such a reduction would represent the significant saving in paper of approximately 50%.

Such a guard is shown by 14 of Figure 10. In this figure 15 is a cover sheet of extra thin material which is applied to the guard for the purpose of appearance. This cover sheet may also be used to bear printed matter for advertising purposes. Figure 11 shows how the cover strip 15 and the guard strip 14 may be laminated in manufacture prior to forming and cutting of the finished guard. On this type of guard the locking latex adhesive may be applied to the underside of either the guard or the shield.

Reference is now made to'Figures 1 and 9. In my application for patent, Serial Number 34,724, United States Patent Ofiice, I claim as invention the application of slip-resistant means to the surface of a trouser guard for coat hangers. In Figures 1 and 9 the application 16 of slip-resistant means is shown in an improved form. Instead of a relatively wide area along the ridge of the guard, the slip-resistant coating is in the form' of a relatively thin serpentine line spanning a relatively wide area in order to gain full effective width with a minimum amount of resistant material.

In Figures 12 and 13 is shown additional means for applying the locking adhesive of Figure 2. Here 17 is a blister of suitable material containing a liquid adhesive. This liquid is shown at 18 of Figure 13 which is a sectional view 19--19 of Figure 13. When the blister, which is applied to the guard in manufacture, is broken, at the time of installing on the hanger, by pressing the split ends of the guard together the liquid adhesive is thus. made available for adhering the guard in place on the hanger.

The above description is not intended to include all of the means of accomplishing the aim of this invention, but rather is intended as representative of a few selected means which serve to exemplify the principles falling within the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

A trouser guard adapted to be supported by the horizontal member of: a substantially triangular garment hanger, said trouser guard comprising a substantially straight, narrow, longitudinal body of thin, flexible sheet material formedwwith anupper surface downwardly and outwardly diverging from a central crest to form a leg at each side of said crest, a first adhesive mass on the upper surface of said sheet material, a second adhesive mass on the bottom surface of saidsheet material on acteristics of adhering only to like masses, said second adhesive masses being of substantially equal area and positioned to adhesively register with each other to secure. said' trouser guard about said horizontal member each of said legs, said adhesive masses having the charwhen the undersurfaces of said legs are brought together in contacting apposition to each other, said first adhesive mass on said upper surface of said sheet material being located in an area which does not coincide with the adhesive-coated area on the bottom surface of said sheet material so that when said trouser guard is nested with similar guards, the adhesive-coated areas on said trouser guard do not contact any adhesivecoated areas of adjacent guards.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,796,625 Sachs Mar. 17, 1931 1,981,775 Bowen Nov. 20, 1934 2,091,506 Guttridge Aug. 31, 1937 2,491,896 Kestner et a1 Dec. 20, 1949 

